I hate pop music

Originally Posted by gianluca

As I expected, those youtube examples of supposedly good pop music did not impress me at all...

True, Brian Wilson is slightly more talented than most pop songwriters and he does seem to show an original harmonic and melodic language within the conventions of the pop song format. I also think Paranoid Android is definitely one of the better and more creative pop songs out there. But the other examples really didn't have very much musical substance. They struck me as typical, uninteresting and conventional pop songs.

Come on, you would be seriously (and painfully naively) fooling yourself to believe that that kind of pop music has the same artistic merit and depth as this music:
YouTube - St.Matthew passion bwv 244 conducted by gustav leonhardt
or this: YouTube - Beethoven Symphony No.9 - Bernstein 1989 (part 1)
or this: YouTube - STRAVINSKY : Rite Of Spring - (V.Gergiev) '07 (1/2)

The same depth, maybe not. Artistic merit, absolutely. Many emotions are conveyed through pop music. I would know, I've written in the pop genres. There is nothing wrong with not liking pop music. But it does have artistic merit.

You guys obviously don't listen to Steely Dan.

Go youtube 'em. Check out "Peg" or "Jack of Speed" or "Godwhacker" or "Josie" or "Hey Nineteen" or "Kid Charlemagne."

It's pop for smart people. That's what you guys are, right? Smart people?


THAT's good pop, and you can only argue that by saying "it's not pop at all," in which case I'd reply with "That's what she said."

~Kal

Originally Posted by Keerakh Kal

You guys obviously don't listen to Steely Dan.

The album Aja could be considered a masterclass in advanced pop music harmony...Gaucho is deeply complex too, as well as Fagen's The Nightfly

Steely Dan is jazz, basically...

Originally Posted by gianluca

As I expected, those youtube examples of supposedly good pop music did not impress me at all...

True, Brian Wilson is slightly more talented than most pop songwriters and he does seem to show an original harmonic and melodic language within the conventions of the pop song format. I also think Paranoid Android is definitely one of the better and more creative pop songs out there. But the other examples really didn't have very much musical substance. They struck me as typical, uninteresting and conventional pop songs.

Come on, you would be seriously (and painfully naively) fooling yourself to believe that that kind of pop music has the same artistic merit and depth as this music:
YouTube - St.Matthew passion bwv 244 conducted by gustav leonhardt
or this: YouTube - Beethoven Symphony No.9 - Bernstein 1989 (part 1)
or this: YouTube - STRAVINSKY : Rite Of Spring - (V.Gergiev) '07 (1/2)

Don't you just listen to music for the sheer enjoyment of hearing it? Please don't tell me you're one of those people who needs to analyze everything they are. I feel sorry for you.

YouTube - Chicago - Sufjan Stevens

no?

YouTube - Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel - The Sounds of Silence Lyrics

no?

YouTube - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Venice Queen

no?

Originally Posted by gms5287

Don't you just listen to music for the sheer enjoyment of hearing it? Please don't tell me you're one of those people who needs to analyze everything they are. I feel sorry for you.

It's not that I feel a conscious need to analyze all music I listen to, it just happens automatically. Whether I enjoy music depends on whether I hear any musical substance in it. Why do I enjoy music? Because it can give me this wonderful, profound, deeply emotional and intellectual experience I can't get out of anything else. Pop music, however, definitely isn't able to give me this deep experience because of its meager musical substance; because it's so impoverished (melodically, harmonically, rhythmically, structurally), because it's so superficial, unimaginative, undemanding, predictable, full of clichés and bombast, slickly produced, inane, repetitive, one-dimensional and emotionally flat. All those youtube examples you guys have given me are no exception.

Here, I'll fix your statement for you:

Originally Posted by gianluca

Why do I enjoy music? Because it can give me this wonderful, profound, deeply emotional and intellectual experience I can't get out of anything else. Pop music, however, definitely isn't able to give me this deep experience because of its [alleged] meager musical substance; because it's so impoverished [to my ears] (melodically, harmonically, rhythmically, structurally), because [as I see it] it's so superficial, unimaginative, undemanding, predictable, full of clichés and bombast, slickly produced, inane, repetitive, one-dimensional and emotionally flat.

Much better!

Eh, he's entitled to his opinion

Originally Posted by gms5287

Eh, he's entitled to his opinion

Exactly. So I amended it to read like his opinion.

Originally Posted by gianluca

It's not that I feel a conscious need to analyze all music I listen to, it just happens automatically. Whether I enjoy music depends on whether I hear any musical substance in it. Why do I enjoy music? Because it can give me this wonderful, profound, deeply emotional and intellectual experience I can't get out of anything else. Pop music, however, definitely isn't able to give me this deep experience because of its meager musical substance; because it's so impoverished (melodically, harmonically, rhythmically, structurally), because it's so superficial, unimaginative, undemanding, predictable, full of clichés and bombast, slickly produced, inane, repetitive, one-dimensional and emotionally flat. All those youtube examples you guys have given me are no exception.

I kind of feel the same way. But you have to learn to simply enjoy the music for what it is. It's like watching TV after taking a broadcasting class- If you pay attention to all the imperfections and cheap tricks, you can't enjoy it.

~Kal